I'm a big fan of Spies, and what happened last year was just incomprehensible in so many ways.

But there's no denying he now switched from the bike, that the reigning champ is on, to the bike, that a former nine-times world champion could very rarely put on the podium, and was having trouble to even keep the CRT bikes behind. Maybe some miracle will happen this year, but if not, it's hard to see this as anything else but a big blow to his career.

I'm a big fan of Spies, and what happened last year was just incomprehensible in so many ways.

But there's no denying he now switched from the bike, that the reigning champ is on, to the bike, that a former nine-times world champion could very rarely put on the podium, and was having trouble to even keep the CRT bikes behind. Maybe some miracle will happen this year, but if not, it's hard to see this as anything else but a big blow to his career.

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Hayden's done just fine on that thing for how many years? Ducati needs a new American ambassador for a while anyways.

Rossi beat Hayden in total points in -11 and -12. Ok, there were injuries, and expectations were through the roof with Rossi, so his results may still in a way be seen as worse than Hayden's. I do admire Hayden's attitude, and he always tries so hard, but it's fair to say he has not set the world on fire with the Duc either.

Yamaha Factory Racing is delighted to announce a Sponsorship and Partnership agreement with the Monster Energy Company (MEC) for 2013 and 2014. As a result of this agreement Monster Energy branding will be visible on the Yamaha YZR-M1s and racing leathers of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi as well as on all team clothing and all team equipment.

Reigning MotoGP World Champion Lorenzo has a personal engagement with Monster Energy and Yamaha included in the agreement. Valentino Rossi&#8217;s personal agreement with Monster Energy will be complementary to the agreement between Yamaha Factory Racing and MEC.

The agreement between the satellite Monster Energy Yamaha Tech3 team and Monster Energy will remain unchanged and is unaffected by the Yamaha &#8211; MEC agreement."

As we often hear from top sports stars - You make your own luck. All Spies knew was how to make bad luck....all by himself.

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All the mechanical problems they had, could not possibly have been all his own fault.

I also think, that when your aim is to challenge guys like Lorenzo or Stoner, your concentration has to be 100%. And you cannot feel uncertain about anything, especially your bike - if you do, you're already behind. With so much trouble in his bike, I cannot blame him, if he lost some of his confidence.